DIPHTHERIA 99 



Cases in which the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus was not 

 found were set aside. So were 20 cases, that were 

 dying on admission. That left 300, who were 

 treated with antitoxin. Of these, only 78 died: 

 that is 26 per cent. 



At the Trousseau Hospital, the antitoxin was 

 not in use. During February to June, 1894, the 

 diphtheritic cases numbered 520. Of these, 316 

 died : that is 60 per cent. 



The cases at these two Hospitals may be divided 

 into those which did not require tracheotomy, and 

 those which did. The death-rate among those 

 which did not, was 12 per cent, at the Hospital 

 for Sick Children, and 32 per cent, at the Trousseau 

 Hospital. The death-rate among those which did, 

 was 49 at the Hospital for Sick Children, and 86 at 

 the Trousseau Hospital. 



That was twenty years ago * : and, from then to 

 now, that has been the world's experience with 

 diphtheria antitoxin. Not that the method is 

 perfect : not that the antitoxin may not cause a 

 rash, and pains in the joints, and a rise of tempera- 



* These old reports are useful : for no Hospital would 

 dare, to-day, to behave as some of them did in 1894. Here 

 is another old report, from the British Medical Journal, 

 October 20, 1895 : " The most striking confirmation of the 

 value of antitoxin has been afforded where the supply ran 

 short during an epidemic. In Baginsky's clinic, the inter- 

 ruption of the serum -treatment promptly raised the mortality 

 from 15*6 per cent, to 48*4 per cent." 



